The semester just passed the halfway point and I just received official notification that I'm now an 'Affiliate Member' of the graduate faculty. which means I can be on Master Thesis committees and teach graduate level courses.
I'm finding that there are few moment to pause and gather your thoughts in the world of the academy. Next semester is on the horizon and rapidly approaching with class enrollment set to start in early November. So on top of writing a new lecture every week, I need to start juggling the syllabus for my two spring semester courses and post the course descriptions.
Compared to this semester where I'm creating a course from scratch, next semester will be a change of pace. I'm co-teaching a 2nd year MLA studio and taking over the teaching of LA 3501 'Environmental Design and Its Biological and Physical Context'. LA 3501 has been offered for 15-some years and has a well honed curriculum that I don't plan on modifying much. It will however be a logistical challenge that will call on my experience as project manager to keep the 200+ students and 4 TAs in the groove with two lectures each week plus recitation. I just got access to the previous webvista site for the course and also received a copy of the text to check out. But at least I'm not attempting to teach this course alone - I'm getting lots of support from the department and the professor that originated the curriculum.
Running the studio will be a fun collaboration that requires a bit of prep work before the semester. Even if we give one lecture a week, the students will do most of the work. The studio is a 'service learning' scenario where we're teamed with North Minneapolis community arts organization. So there will be several collaborative exercises with middle school and high school students about their community and a 'real' client providing feedback and constraints for the MLA students to engage.
Additionally, I will likely be on 4 capstone/thesis committees. The names of those students haven't yet been shared with me, but I keep getting whispers of good things from the thesis coordinator who I share an office with.
As a land grant university, the department's mission is three-fold: education, research, and outreach. So far, I've just been focused on teaching as I get a hang of my new honorific 'Professor Lehrman'. As I look towards the horizon and the opportunity of becoming a career academic, I'm contemplating my research agenda and areas for outreach. Generating ideas that get me excited has never been a problem, but finding time to develop a few into a long term project seems to be a task that will have to wait till next summer. There is also the tenure requirement of service - something that I'm actively involved with as a member of the ASLA policy committee.
Yesterday, I got to attend my first faculty meeting for the College of Design. Compared simple organizational structure of the firm's I've been members of, the massive bureaucracy of the university is slightly overwhelming. It's not just the layers of administration, but numerous committees spun off from the faculty senate and the department that leave my head spinning. From the meeting, I've learned that 'academic freedom' is just a mirage as there are many, many forces pushing and pulling at academics that control the research and teaching process at a land grant institution.
In contrast, the world of practice is very simple: the client pays for your services, the public and officials set conditions that need to be met for approval, and in the end we move on to the next project. It seems that in the academic world, there are always counterproductive agendas and politics swirling around. This year the battles seem to be particularly fierce due to the budgetary issues that are affecting most public institutions and the endowment losses at the private colleges. So far, I'm just an adjunct observer of the process and politics trying to figure out how to navigate these turbulent waters. But compared to the machination and private vendettas of the hollywood jungle where I spent most of the '90s, the the university is savanna where you can see most of the lions lurking on the horizon.
I'm finding that there are few moment to pause and gather your thoughts in the world of the academy. Next semester is on the horizon and rapidly approaching with class enrollment set to start in early November. So on top of writing a new lecture every week, I need to start juggling the syllabus for my two spring semester courses and post the course descriptions.
Compared to this semester where I'm creating a course from scratch, next semester will be a change of pace. I'm co-teaching a 2nd year MLA studio and taking over the teaching of LA 3501 'Environmental Design and Its Biological and Physical Context'. LA 3501 has been offered for 15-some years and has a well honed curriculum that I don't plan on modifying much. It will however be a logistical challenge that will call on my experience as project manager to keep the 200+ students and 4 TAs in the groove with two lectures each week plus recitation. I just got access to the previous webvista site for the course and also received a copy of the text to check out. But at least I'm not attempting to teach this course alone - I'm getting lots of support from the department and the professor that originated the curriculum.
Running the studio will be a fun collaboration that requires a bit of prep work before the semester. Even if we give one lecture a week, the students will do most of the work. The studio is a 'service learning' scenario where we're teamed with North Minneapolis community arts organization. So there will be several collaborative exercises with middle school and high school students about their community and a 'real' client providing feedback and constraints for the MLA students to engage.
Additionally, I will likely be on 4 capstone/thesis committees. The names of those students haven't yet been shared with me, but I keep getting whispers of good things from the thesis coordinator who I share an office with.
As a land grant university, the department's mission is three-fold: education, research, and outreach. So far, I've just been focused on teaching as I get a hang of my new honorific 'Professor Lehrman'. As I look towards the horizon and the opportunity of becoming a career academic, I'm contemplating my research agenda and areas for outreach. Generating ideas that get me excited has never been a problem, but finding time to develop a few into a long term project seems to be a task that will have to wait till next summer. There is also the tenure requirement of service - something that I'm actively involved with as a member of the ASLA policy committee.
Yesterday, I got to attend my first faculty meeting for the College of Design. Compared simple organizational structure of the firm's I've been members of, the massive bureaucracy of the university is slightly overwhelming. It's not just the layers of administration, but numerous committees spun off from the faculty senate and the department that leave my head spinning. From the meeting, I've learned that 'academic freedom' is just a mirage as there are many, many forces pushing and pulling at academics that control the research and teaching process at a land grant institution.
In contrast, the world of practice is very simple: the client pays for your services, the public and officials set conditions that need to be met for approval, and in the end we move on to the next project. It seems that in the academic world, there are always counterproductive agendas and politics swirling around. This year the battles seem to be particularly fierce due to the budgetary issues that are affecting most public institutions and the endowment losses at the private colleges. So far, I'm just an adjunct observer of the process and politics trying to figure out how to navigate these turbulent waters. But compared to the machination and private vendettas of the hollywood jungle where I spent most of the '90s, the the university is savanna where you can see most of the lions lurking on the horizon.
